The “best athlete” in tennis

During the Rogers Cup, one the very best TV commentators, Jim Courier,  described Gael Monfils as far and away the best athlete ever to play on the tour.  Comments like his are frequently heard during TV coverage of matches.  So at this point I think it’s worth asking what makes a person a great athlete.

In my opinion the definition is usually a narrow one that is based on a subjective feeling one gets when watching a player.  However, that subjective impression is created by only some aspects of athleticism - the ones most easily seen when watching play.   In my view, all of the highly ranked players are phenomenal athletes.  So in this post, let’s take a look at the important features of athleticism, and which top players manifest these features most clearly.  Here they are:

 1) Strength.  Many top athletes utilize strength as their main asset.  In tennis, the players who use strength most are Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal.  These guys brutalize the ball with their tremendous upper body strength and/or strength in their quadriceps muscles.  Without that power I don’t think Stan would be anywhere near the top 10 in tennis.  Other very strong men are Milos Raonic and Thomas Berdych.  On the women’s side, I believe Serena Williams is the physically strongest woman ever to play the game. 

2) Quickness.  Quickness is the ability to reach top running speed from a standing start, or after changing direction, in the shortest time.  Top players with the greatest quickness are Kei Nishikori and Novak Djokovic.   A look at these players’ physiques makes it easy to see that brute strength is not their asset.  Their quickness, however, is awesome, and allows them to save balls that other players would never reach.

3) Speed.  When you reach top speed, how fast do you run?  In this area, Gael Monfils is clearly near the top.  Once he gets those long strides going, it’s simply amazing how much court he covers.  Murray, Nadal and Nishikori are also very fast, and a few years back, so was Roger Federer. 

4) Dexterity.  Dexterity in tennis is used both to set up for shots with footwork and to handle the racquet deftly.   In the footwork department, Roger Federer is at the top.  He makes small adjustments to the ball with such lithe efficiency that he looks as if he’s waiting for shots even when they are very difficult to handle.  He also uses his footwork very well to set up his forehand.  Djokovic is another with high dexterity.  This aspect of athleticism is not nearly as easy to see as strength or speed.

5) Hand-eye coordination.  When the ball coming at you at blazing speed and you have to adjust in order to make a solid, well placed return, hand-eye coordination is crucial.  Again, Roger Federer is endowed with phenomenal hand-eye abilities, manifest mostly these days by his great volleying skills.  He has always been an incredible shot maker, particularly off the backhand side, and those shots cannot be made without awesome hand-eye abilities.  Another player with strong skills in this area is David Goffin.  He takes blazing ground strokes and redirects them to unexpected parts of the court with astounding skill.  Nobody thinks of Goffin as one of the “great athletes” on the tour, but don’t kid yourself.   Djokovic and Andy Murray also have tremendous hand-eye abilities, which they use to return serve extremely well.

6) Flexibility.  That ability to make one final stretch to get a ball, or to contort your body so as to be on balance when returning a difficult shot, is another important aspect of athleticism.  Again, Federer is one of the most flexible athletes ever to play, as is Djokovic.   That final stretch Federer often makes at the net or when pressed at the baseline is beautiful to watch, and sometimes Djokovic looks as if his limbs are made of elastic bands. 

So who is the greatest athlete on the tour?  Stop asking!  They all are, but the aspects of athleticism that they use in order to play great tennis are not equally apparent to the casual viewer.  It’s easy to see it when a man is enormously strong or jumps very high.  But the subtler abilities, especially when used in the high speed exchanges of professional tennis, are easy to miss.